The Tarot Master
by Aalicia
Summary: Ichigo is a Nephilim Tarot Master who seduces women with the flip of a card. Rukia is the first woman to defy his power. IchiRuki AU among the lust of fallen angels.
1. Prologue: The Nephilim

**Disclaimer:** Bleach and all its characters are property of Kubo Tite, not mine. The quotes at the head of the chapters belong to the sources mentioned below them. The meanings of the Tarot cards were taken from the following books: The Bible of Tarot, by Sarah Bartlett; Predictions, by Bridget Reed; The Illustrated Book of Tarot, by Jane Lyle; Angels' Tarot, by Lubélia and José Medeiros. The Tarot deck is based on the one illustrated by Colin Howard.

_Author's Notes:_ IchiRuki AU taking place in a fictional version of contemporary Tokyo where the Nephilim, the offspring of humans with angelic creatures, prey on women so that their species can prevail. Inspired by and dedicated to my friend and fellow author Fathom-x.

* * *

**The Tarot Master**

**Prologue – The Nephilim**

The hybrids born from the mating in between angels and humans.

"_And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied that in those days were born unto them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men and beget us children.' And Semjaza, who was their leader, said unto them: 'I fear ye will not indeed agree to do this deed, and I alone shall have to pay the penalty of a great sin.' And they all answered him and said: 'Let us all swear an oath, and all bind ourselves by mutual imprecations not to abandon this plan but to do this thing.' Then swore they all together and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it. And they were in all two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it..."_

_Book of Enoch_

_***  
_

Seiretei Covenant. A massive mansion resembling a gothic monastery in style. The center aisle, a high domed round room, was shrouded in silence and darkness until the tower bell was told.

_DONG_ – The room came alight with all the torches rekindling flame, revealing colors and casting dancing shadows behind all the pillars standing on the marble floor.

_DONG_ – The main door creaked open, a hooded figure advanced to the center of the room with slow but sure steps made with bare feet under the black satin cloak.

_DONG_ – The door closed, the figure stopped, only the torches filled the silence with the sound of burning and leading the light on the dance of flame.

Behind the pillars, new shadows came alive. When the pale light revealed their form, they were men, or looked like men, for their footsteps held no sound and their eyes were a bright blue. The first one to reach the guest lowered the hood, revealing the beautiful young woman underneath it. Her eyes were filled with love, not just towards the one who was now untying the laces of her cloak, but also towards the one who was behind her running a hand up her leg underneath her robes, the one who was by her side with fingers rubbing her breast over the soft silk still hiding it, the one who didn't yet reach for her but watched behind his peers with lustful eyes… In truth, she loved everyone around her, she was bound to. Her soul had been manipulated and ripped from her, leaving nothing but an unconditional love for everyone belonging to that Covenant. Their word was law and to obey them a privilege, and so she rejoiced as fallen angels, ridden from their wings and condemned to live imprisoned in this outer dimension until the end of their days, feasted on her body together, lavishly possessing her like a pack of wolves in heat.

Only a silky sleeve still remained in place, as her body was being felt by half a dozen heavenly hands, licked and suckled by roughly an equal number of hungry mouths, watched by other several fiery blue eyes and penetrated by the third angel already during that night.

Above the pillars there was a balcony, where a winged man with an auburn gaze was admiring the whole scene, playfully flipping a card in between his fingers.

"Admiring your work, Kurosaki?" Another winged man approached him, holding a black scepter with a glowing sphere at the top.

He narrowed his eyes at his newly arrived company. "And you still don't trust my work, Ishida, to be walking around with the Scepter of Retrieval at hand."

"Never too safe. Human souls are more powerful in this realm than we Nephilim are in the real world. If one manages to unbind herself from the spell, it could mean the destruction of the whole Covenant. Why do you think only a handful of covenants still exist from the original twenty?"

He smirked. "Because those angels and the women they mated with never produced offspring as powerful as me."

Ishida sighed. "Sometimes I wish one would actually break your binding, just so you would lose that cocky attitude of yours."

The orange haired hybrid chuckled. "I'm a Tarot Master. Of all the abilities Nephilim can be born with, I was blessed with the most complete of them all. It grants me full domination of all aspects of life. No one can break my spell any more than this clown can actually realize he's walking towards his downfall." And he held up the final card of his soul binding, the numberless Major Arcana where a joker distracted with his own musings doesn't see his next step has no ground to set foot on. "That's her right now. So put the Scepter of Retrieval to rest, that woman isn't going to do anything apart from hopefully giving birth to a hybrid, some months from now."

Ishida didn't have to look at the woman to know the truth of that statement, her climaxing cries were reaching his ears just fine, given they were echoing all over the huge aisle. Still, he was a bad loser. "I'll leave the Scepter with Asano for him to keep an eye on things. Meet me at the gate, we're getting back to the real world, they'll grow tired of her soon." And he walked past him.

"They haven't called for anyone else yet."

"One more the reason for us to search for potentials."

"I don't need you for that."

"You'll only not need me if and when you become a Carrier yourself."

"And put all my power to waste?!"

Ishida was either too far to hear it already, or simply wouldn't be bothered to reply anymore. The Tarot Master shuffled his deck and placed it inside his black hakama, the only piece of clothing he liked to wear while in his winged form. And he followed Ishida's path out from the balcony. An unsuspecting world was out there waiting for him and his irresistible allure.


	2. The Magician

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter One – Tarot Card 1 The Magician**

**Characteristics: **Represents the beginning, the man in nature before his destiny.

"… _in practice the magic art may be employed for the benefit either of individuals or of the whole community… the public magician occupies a position of great influence, from which, if he is a prudent and able man, he may advance step by step to the rank of a chief or king"_

_The Golden Bough _Sir James Frazer

***

Both Nephilim were seated on top of a sky scraper, watching the busy streets of Tokyo below. It was a Friday night, the streets were flooding with traffic and groups of people walking together dressed for a party among carefree chatter. They looked like unsuspecting prey under the scrutiny of two waiting hawks.

"So… where should I go tonight…"

"A new club opened just five blocks south of here." Ishida replied, with his light blue feathered wings being rustled by the breeze. "Might be a good place."

"Why does it always have to be clubs, you know I hate the booming music…"

"It doesn't. They're just more practical. Many women together, many possible potentials, easier to manipulate in case the Fathers get in a hurry to have one of them."

"Common mortals are _all_ easy to manipulate, whatever the circumstance."

"Well, not all Nephilim have it that easy, hence easy circumstances are traditionally sought for. Stop boasting your prowess and lose the bored attitude, it's being a Seeker that has given you the reason to have something to brag about, playing bored with your duty doesn't become you."

He looked at Ishida by the corners of his eyes. "You're a Carrier and you look bored all the time."

"That's because I was assigned to you."

"Che!" Ishida's ever present displays of contempt for him were always amusing for some odd reason. "Why did you quit it? Being a Seeker, I mean. You were a Metal Rune Master, they say you were quite good."

"Don't worry, Kurosaki, I was not as good as you."

"Of course not," that made Ishida roll up his eyes "but that's not what I'm asking. Why did you become a Carrier?"

"I developed the orientation sense through the Severing World, becoming a Carrier was the natural choice."

"That's not true. Many Seekers remain so even after being able to cross the Severing World in between dimensions without a Soul Aegis to transport them. They say you yourself remained a Seeker working without a Carrier for several years, after you gained the orientation sense."

"Carriers are scarce, a Covenant is always in need of them."

"You could still carry prey from other Seekers being a Seeker who can cross worlds without an Aegis."

"What's your point, Kurosaki?"

"My point is there's a reason why you dropped seeking."

"Why wouldn't I."

"Your point being?..."

"My point being it's none of your business."

He chuckled again. "You _must_ miss it. I mean, why else would you still carry your binding cross" upon hearing this, Ishida noticed he was absent-mindedly playing with his bracelet with a silver cross in between his fingers and quickly closed the hand around it "with you, even when only doing Carrier duty?"

"I don't miss it."

"Oh, come on." His lips curved in a smirk. "We are the ones to break the ladies in before our horny heavenly fathers can lay hands on them. They must love a Seeker before being able to love a Covenant. Why become a Carrier and just get to travel them in between worlds?"

"You just proved my point."

"What, that it's none of my business why you don't feast on the love of mortals anymore?..."

"That I don't miss it. If you noticed I still carry my binding cross, if you acknowledge my seeking power was considerable, if you realize I could still do seeking besides carrying – is the fact alone I choose to only carry enough to convince you I don't miss seeking, or do you need me to bind you into a clairvoyance metal rune for better judgment?"

He shrugged his orange feathered wings. "… So… It's none of my business."

"For heaven's sake, Kurosaki, all that binding power within your Tarot deck is surely a compensation for what you lack in wits…"

Kurosaki Ichigo waved a hand dismissively. It made no sense to him why would anyone choose not to bathe in a woman's love, when having the power to do so. He could not find anything more compelling than to feel loved. Would loving be any better? Would the love he can create with his deck be any different from the one that naturally assaults humans sometimes? How lucky would a human be when he's loved for who he is, instead of as a result of a higher power being exerted on one's soul… "… Don't you envy them sometimes?"

Ishida closed his eyes with impatience. "Envy who?"

"Humans."

That surprised Ishida, and he turned to see Ichigo gazing the streets with an uncharacteristic serious expression. "Why would I envy humans?"

"They can love."

"Yes." He narrowed his eyes. "_Yes_, they can. That's what enables them to be the Fools on your little Tarot deck and not mind being ravaged by you and the group of accursed fallen angels that follows, what is there to envy about _that_?"

"No… I mean… Humans can love without a Nephilim's power binding them. How special can that be, right? To be loved like that."

"You're spouting nonsense, Kurosaki, which I should know better than to be surprised with. We are loved more times during a lifetime than whole towns of people during a century. If there's anything to be envied in love, we are the ones to be envied for."

"I'm talking about being loved for who we are. A love which isn't a spell."

Ishida sighed and looked at the horizon. "But what is love, but a spell… And we are the spell weavers. That's the order of things."

"The two hundred angels first mated humans without spell weavers, they were loved without a spell."

"No, they didn't have to be loved to begin with. Their mating was done here in the real world, before they lost their wings and were condemned to twenty different dimensions. If not for some of their offspring to have resulted in Nephilim with orientation sense through the Severing World in between – the first Carriers – which later created the Soul Aegis for all Nephilim to be able to cross worlds, the Nephilim race would have been extinct at the end of the first generation's lifetime and the fallen angels' life in captivity would be far more boring, as they can't leave, and no humans can cross over."

Ishida stood up and continued. "Of course, once they tried to bring the first human girls to quench the angels' lust for flesh in doomed captivity and give continuation to the Nephilim race, they had to bear in mind those dimensions grant human souls with nearly godly powers. But the universe is not without balance, hence the Seekers among our race. The ones able to manipulate human souls, bind them with love for them and their Covenant, so they can be impregnated safely."

He paused and looked down at Ichigo. "And there was never a Seeker more powerful than you in all Seiretei's written chronicles, no Nephilim who could bind so quickly nor so effectively, hence you are the most conceited hybrid arse I've ever had the displeasure to be associated with, matching a power that still manages to be overshadowed by an even greater ego with the I.Q. of a rhino, resulting in this remarkable personality which only manages to be charming when you keep your mouth shut."

Ichigo had opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again. Not that Ishida's words would ever bother him, but there was something on his tone that sounded different, like casting a new light on the Carrier he worked with for so many years. And like everything new he could find in life, he was welcoming the discovery of this different shade of Ishida.

"Don't speak of love as if you could even grasp the slightest thing about it, Kurosaki. It's like trying to cross the Severing World without a Soul Aegis, you'll just get lost in infinity, you lack the ability to know how to arrive somewhere. You're a Nephilim, a Seeker, a Tarot Master. Your job, your single use of existence is to steal the hearts of fertile young ladies so that our race can survive. It's who you are, it's all you can do. So stick to it."

Ichigo wasn't as dense as Ishida painted him. In fact, behind those big brown eyes, he was sensing clearly the Carrier seemed almost more determined to convince himself of those words than to convince the Seeker he was working with. Something strange definitely happened in Ishida's past, but he knew he wouldn't reveal it, so Ichigo decided to let it be. "What's the name of that club you want me to check out?"

Ishida was surprised by the sudden change of subject. It was the first time his fellow Nephilim looked like having really listened to him. "Soul Society."

"Hah! That's appropriate." And he stood up. "I'll go there first, I'll call you if I end up finding something for you to take back to Seiretei. Don't bother wishing me luck, I carry it on my deck." And he jumped off the building, free falling half way through, then spreading his massive orange wings and turning diagonally, flapping a few times before riding the wind again, heading south. Ishida was right when he said playing bored didn't become him. He loved flying through the night in the real world, wondering who his next prey will be.

Ishida stood there and opened his hand, the silver cross shining in the moonlight. And he sat down again, holding his knees to his chest. "Careful with what you ask for, Kurosaki… It might come true one day… And when you find out about love… you'll find out about hate."


	3. The High Priestess

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Two – Tarot Card 2 The High Priestess**

**Characteristics: **Intuition, the wise and mysterious woman.

"_And thou who thinkest to seek for me, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not, unless thou knowest the mystery; that if that which thou seekest thou findest not within thee, then thou shall never find it without thee. For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire."_

_Charge of the Goddess_ from Witchcraft ritual

***

Ichigo first flew around the block a few times, checking the environment and watching the kind of people heading for the night club. It looked fancy, the construction was original in style, classy layout, expensive furnishing and entertainment, definitely an upper class party destination. Not that class would be any obstacle for him, along with the ability to hide his wings, he could also spawn any wardrobe of his choice to clad himself with, when taking a human form and becoming visible to human eyes. And he had an acute sense of fashion, the enough to be perceived as well dressed, but keeping people's attention on the body underneath instead of what he's wearing.

Of course, he didn't need to be good looking, even without using his Tarot deck, he had enough power to emanate such an aura of pheromones he could make all the women in the proximity turn to measure him with their lust meter in full charge. But, as with everything else of his supernatural persona, he took pride in being graced with attractive features. Though it wasn't a matter to be boasting about among fellow Nephilim – after all, being the children of angels, they all tended to be exceptionally beautiful and very few in history have been born differently. But, in the real world, things were very different, and Ichigo would even sometimes completely hold back his power, just to see how many hungry eyes he could still provoke in women out of his looks alone.

Feeling wanted indulged him greatly. He didn't know love, but human desire, he understood well. He was perfectly acquainted with lust, and he believed lust was felt the same way by all races, human, hybrid and heavenly. So every time he was surrounded by desire, he felt both hunter and prey, both equal and superior, for he too can be aroused and it gave merit to the one arousing him, so the more his merit for how many people he managed to pull the carnal strings to, simultaneously and with so little effort.

A huge part of a Nephilim's power, especially a Seeker, lies in his loins. A Seeker's seed is the final ingredient to the binding of a human soul to his entire genealogical tree, everyone bearing a similar divine code in their nature, in other words, the Seeker's Covenant. Provided, of course, that the human soul already bears love for the Nephilim she's embraced by. The condemned angels were divided in family covenants, all who share a covenant do so with fellow angels from their own family. But only the Seeker can undo the power of his own seed in a human.

What a Nephilim seed holds in power, it lacks in fertility, there is no known case of Nephilim ever being able to produce children, not even the rare female hybrids. To be sure, even the angels' seed rarely produces children, hence they engage on mating as a pack to increase their chances. As with all races in nature, the primal strive is to survive and all elements in a Covenant rely on each other to prevail. Without the Nephilim to bring them human women, the immortal angels would eventually succumb to despair and die. Without the angels, the Nephilim race would be extinct, for even though their lifespan is far longer than a human's, they are mortal and have no known means of spawning further generations besides the mating of their accursed fathers with human women.

It was finally time to take a look inside. Raising his wings up, Ichigo landed in a dark alley with a thud and when he emerged into the light, he was wearing black leather trousers and a silk short sleeved shirt that perfectly molded his broad shoulders and muscular torso. He calmly walked towards Soul Society's entrance, completely aware he was being ogled by every woman within sight range.

As he tried to get inside, the doorman pressed a hand against his shoulder. "I'm sorry, sir, we're nearing a full house, only ladies, couples and house card customers can come in now."

"Oh?..." He smiled, raising an arm seemingly to scratch his head. Before the hand even touched his scalp, a girl had already lodged herself against his side, resting her head on his shoulder and being hugged by the same hand that looked like it was heading for his hair instead of hers just a moment ago.

"He's with me!" She stated with a triumphant smile, sending sly looks to the girls in the group of friends behind her for not being as quick as she was.

"In that case, please come in, have a pleasant evening with us."

Almost as soon as they got in, Ichigo took the girl's hands in his and kissed her cheek close to her ear. "Thank you, darling, I owe you one." And he walked away.

"Wait! When will I see you again?"

Ichigo looked back and smirked, rolling up his eyes. "When the angels so wish it."

She caressed her necklace and smiled back, whispering "Angels…" What she didn't know was that tantalizing stranger was meaning it quite literally. She was too young to fit his type, he would only find her again if the angels back in Seiretei Covenant would pick up her scent from him and demand for her specifically. Not that they would refuse anything a Seeker brings to them, but when he takes a girl outside a Covenant's demand, might as well be one he personally wants to have.

And there was plenty of choice tonight. The place was so deliciously packed with gorgeous women, he wasn't even minding the loud music. He walked among them like a King of Sheba, he could make a harem from them all, if he so wished it, right there and then with a flip of a card. But he was just observing, amusing himself with his own power. Savoring the hungry eyes, caressing a curl of hair from a blond woman on his way through the dance track, kissing a shoulder here, brushing his nose on a neck there, all women welcomed his attention, out of his Nephilim magnetism alone, without using the Tarot deck. He had almost crossed the whole dance floor, when he leisurely ran his fingers down a petite girl's bare back.

_SLAP!!_

What just happened?... Did she… _hit him_?... She was now staring at him with huge defiant violet orbs, while he had all the shades of the affront plastered on his face, along with a very red cheek. How dared she?!...

His pheromones were working on her friends just fine, they both came to his defense, trying to comfort him out of this abomination of human behavior.

"Are you alright?" a tanned bright eyed woman rested her hand on his chest.

"Does it hurt?" a tall blond caressed his burning cheek. "You're far too violent, Kuchiki, look at what you've done to this young man!"

The insufferable little devil just blinked her eyes at her companions and resumed her glaring at the Nephilim, who still showed the astonished and insulted look from one being slapped for the very first time in life. And indeed he was. _Oh… she would_ _pay_.

That thought made him regain his composure. Humans with the devil on their character didn't scare him, he is a Tarot Master, he holds the devil itself on a deck of cards. He raised his chin before bowing without taking his eyes away from her. "Forgive me, madam, for crossing my liberty. I'm sure you'll soon realize yourself it's a mistake easily fallen into."

At the end of his words, she could see a glint of bright blue adorn his brown irises for just a fraction of a second, before he turned and walked away. She kept watching his orange mane until the crowd made her lose sight of him. What could he mean?...


	4. The Devil

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Three – Tarot Card 15 The Devil**

**Characteristics: **Material chains. The temptation of flesh, the higher or lower forces as a fatality.

"_What was he doing, the great god Pan,_

_Down in the reeds by the river?_

_Spreading ruin and scattering ban,_

_Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,_

_And breaking the golden lilies afloat_

_With the dragon-fly on the river."_

_A Musical Instrument_ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

***

He leaned against the wall on a dark corner where he could still see her and he started shuffling his Tarot deck. The deck changed appearance according to the one it was trying to bind, and the first thing he noticed as he was focusing the deck on her was that the back of the cards became black and white, with elaborate figures representing all four Suits. It had the Pentacle at the center, a large coin engraved with a fierce wolf's head, the Swords on the first diagonal pointing towards the Pentacle, the Wands on the second diagonal pointing outwardly and the Cups on the central vertical line also heading towards the edges of the cards. The whole image was even framed exquisitely with flower motives. The complete balance in between all the Suits, so strongly present it became the back of the deck. He had never seen anything like it, tonight was definitely full of surprises and he was loving it. … apart from the… slap… obviously, which hurt his pride as much as Ishida's words always intended but never achieved. But his revenge was close…

He took out her attitude card, and was met with the eighth Major Arcana, Strength. He should be surprised a mere human had a Major Arcana on something as mundane as her attitude, but somehow he was already expecting it, how else could she have resisted him so bluntly earlier. The card itself still surprised him, though. He had seen Strength usually take the form of a noble lady opening the mouth of a lion standing by her side, but this one was _far_ different. It had the same exquisite framing of the back of the cards, only golden instead of black and white. The landscape was barren ground under disperse high hot climate trees and the lion was laying on its back, while a gorgeous long haired warrioress scantily clad in leather was sitting on top the animal, completely dominating and gazing forth with a triumphantly raised fist. He narrowed his eyes to the card. Was it him, or did the lion look… pleased?... The card was so striking it was almost a shame having to ruin it. But then again, it was a shame a mere human dared slap his divine persona… Time to get even.

His eyes became the angelic bright blue to do his evil deed. Inside the card, the lion started struggling, but the woman was still pinning it down. Not bending easily, is she?... But there isn't such a thing as a card of his own deck he can't manipulate. The landscape started to become aflame, the lion gained goat horns and bat wings, chains rose from the ground and restrained the woman's wrists. The woman became a man on his knees chained to the ground, as the lion became a huge demon and rose in front of him over the flames. The name Strength on the lower frame became The Devil.

"Gotcha!" He was still clenching his jaw with the effort, but it was finally done. His eyes returned to the normal auburn as he kept admiring the card. He had to give it to her, even her Devil card was beautiful. But more beautiful should be the effect… He regarded her at the distance with a naughty grin of satisfaction. "Let's see which part of my body you'll want to lay hands on now, little insolent pest…"

Across the dance floor, the girl's cheeks became flustered. She was feeling hot, too hot. She was suddenly too aware of the soft brushing of her top against the pink tips of her breasts which hardened with the caress. She could feel her underwear getting damp underneath her skirt and her breath became uneven. The room seemed to move around her in dizziness. As she closed her eyes, her mind brought the image of an auburn gaze being lit with bright blue fire. It made her core clench and she muttered a small whimper, flexing her fingers at the fabric below the skirt's waist.

"Kuchiki, are you alright?" her blond friend asked her.

No, she was not alright. Everywhere her body was touched, it felt like _him_ caressing her. Every time she would close her eyes, all she could see was him, all she felt was the need to kiss him, to be possessed by him, her whole body was screaming to be taken by his, yearning to feast on his desire. She covered her mouth with one hand and her tongue thoughtlessly licked her palm wishing it was his skin instead. She was _not_ alright. She had to get out of there. Fast.

"I have to go somewhere." was all the she said before she hurriedly walked away from them.

"Wait! Kuchiki! … What is wrong with her?!" Their tanned friend just shrugged in reply.

On the other side, Ichigo was seeing her approaching fast. "Come to daddy…" he whispered to himself, when their eyes met and he could see the urgency – product of his fine labor – flagrantly present on her stare.

As he stopped, waiting for her to shower her uncontrollable passion on him, they bumped shoulders as she hurriedly strolled right past him.

He stood there impassible, as his brain took a few seconds to thoroughly digest what just happened, and a few seconds more to actually believe it. When it finally did, he suddenly turned his head in her direction, catching the last glimpses of her form before it was lost in the crowd. He opened his mouth like an insulted teenage girl and stared at the ceiling, with his hands on his waist. He sighed and watched the floor, before looking towards where she had gone through again, shaking his head. He still didn't believe it.

The petite heated woman locked herself inside a cubicle in the ladies' room, where she leaned against the wall and proceeded to vent out all her lustful agony in between her fingers. Luckily for her, the booming music stuffed all her moans, as she reached underneath her skirt and desperately rubbed her aching folds. She raised her top and grabbed the now exposed mounds, all the time imagining it was _him_ savoring them. It didn't take long for her to come, and she collapsed on the conveniently pristine clean marble floor, lying on her side and twitching with her hand in between her legs, for her thirst was not yet quenched. In her mind, _he_ was penetrating her, it was his manhood she felt with every stroke of her fingers, his pelvis rubbing against hers with every pressure of her palm. She bit her fingers when she came a second time, her dark strands unraveled in the floor as she shook and shifted sides in between gasping cries, curling on herself like a cat, with the urgency of reaching deeper and higher.

Six feet above, perfectly discerning her huffs and moans apart from the loud music, squatted over the corner on the cubicle to fit in between the walls and the ceiling and unseen by human eyes, an orange winged figure was watching her, both aroused and puzzled. He knew she was coming with him in mind, he knew her body was craving for him, so why does she stubbornly insist on resisting him with insolence?... What kind of mind resists the body with such resolve?...

He wanted her. He wanted her to want him. He had just used one Tarot card, his deck has seventy-eight of them. More than enough to flood her mind, her heart, her very soul, until she's ready to surrender her body to his claim. That's all he knows how to do, and the best at that, so he'd be damned before there being a human who could _ever_ overpower him.


	5. The Emperor

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Four – Tarot Card 4 The Emperor**

**Characteristics: **Represents the will of power. Intelligence allied to action is source of creation.

"'_Begin at the beginning', the King said, gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end; then stop.'"_

_Alice in Wonderland_ Lewis Carroll

***

The three girls were sitting around a table on Kuchiki Manor's inner porch having refreshments and chatting lively, unaware of the Nephilim watching them atop a neighboring manor's rooftop. He didn't greet the familiar Carrier who landed and sat beside him.

"What's so interesting this side of Karakura Town, Kurosaki?"

He was holding his knees to his chest and replied to the closed fist in front of his mouth, almost talking to himself. "She resisted a Major Arcana…"

The dark blue eyed Nephilim laughed loudly to the sky. "That explains your gloom alright! Who's the heroine?"

Ichigo pointed his chin forward. "The Kuchiki woman."

Ishida frowned his eyebrows. "Kuchiki? That rings a bell… I think Abarai from Hueco Mundo Covenant once tried, and couldn't set any single one of his dice on her."

The orange haired Seeker finally turned to look at his partner. "Renji the Dice Master?"

"Yes. Haven't you already released some women from your binding in the past, so he could take them, when they're demanded by his Covenant instead of ours?"

He resumed watching the girls. "I did it a few times, to spare him from the punishment of not being able to bind a potential. His head of the Covenant is far stricter than ours. But only in his dreams would he be able to bind this one."

Ishida smirked and patted his shoulder. "It's good not to be alone in defeat, isn't it."

He slapped Ishida's hand away. "Don't throw the fireworks yet, Carrier boy. It was just one Major Arcana, I have twenty-one more." And he eyed the blue winged Nephilim again. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Oh, it's the first time I wished I reached you sooner, given I just missed witnessing your debut cold shower first hand, Seeker boy."

"Stop trying to get under my skin, Ishida, you should know by now it's far too thick for you."

He grinned teasingly. "You're right, apparently humans are the ones being much better _skilled_ for that."

He would not give Ishida the satisfaction of seeing him take insult, so he smiled instead. "Oh, it's natural for me to be surprised by a human's resistance to my charms, when even fellow Nephilim apparently join me for the pleasure of my company."

Ishida smiled back. "That would be an intelligent remark, Kurosaki, if only there was any truth to it. I'm here to bring you work, the Fathers demanded one of the scents Kojima brought on him, but he's still working on his latest potential, so can't yet bind the new girl."

"Get somebody else to do it, I'm not dropping this one."

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh?... Are you finding pleasure in humiliation? I thought one slap on your oversized ego would be enough never to wish lying eyes on her again."

"On the contrary, my friend… It's but at the face of true adversity that one finds one's true valor."

"Or the lack of it."

"Even though it's usually the enough to bend any given mortal, the truth is – and you know this as well as I do – she tasted but a tip of my power. She'll be mine. It's as certain as me sitting here right now."

"If she resists Major Arcana, just how are you going to achieve that?"

"I'll do a reading spread."

Ishida whistled in admiration. "A whole spread? How long has it been since you last needed a spread to bind someone?"

"Decades. I only used them back when I was a rookie and, even then, three cards tops were enough to do the trick. But this time I'll do an advanced reading…"

"The Celtic Cross?"

Ichigo shook his head. "The Celtic Cross is too generic. I'll do something personal, completely undress her in a spread… I'll know exactly which cards to manipulate and what to counter them with… She might resist one Major Arcana… but no material race – be it human, hybrid or heavenly – can resist as many as eight Tarot cards aimed specifically towards their main definers. She's as good as mine, Ishida, you can bet your wings on it. So put away your guitar and go sing your misfortunes elsewhere, the more the power she'll demand from me, the bigger the smile I'll have on my face when I drop her to her knees begging me to rock her senseless."

"Oh, I'll enjoy seeing you land flat on your face!" He really would, if only he believed it was possible. He had never seen him so determined and he knew that, even though Ichigo was cocky beyond what should be universally possible, it was not without strong foundation. Even Nephilim feared his power, regardless of being perfectly aware it was forbidden to use it against hybrids or angels. The Kuchiki woman was definitely bound to visit Seiretei soon.

"And I'll enjoy rubbing my victory on your face too when I summon you to personally bring her in."

A noise shifted their attention back to the Kuchiki Manor. The two taller women were leaving and a man had come outside to greet them before their parting. They could listen to their voices at the distance.

"Rukia, come inside now."

"Yes, Nii-sama."

Before he walked in, however, he held the door and seemed to be gazing towards the roof the Nephilim were seated on.

"Where the hell is that asshole looking at?" And he turned to Ishida. "Are you visible?"

The Carrier sighed. "Why on earth would I make myself visible with my wings out, Kurosaki?! I could already master shape shifting and stealth decades before you were even born."

"He's looking at us."

"He's looking at the rooftop, rejection has definitely made you paranoid…"

The man walked into the house and closed the door. Ichigo stood up. "Maybe. I'm heading back to Seiretei, I have a date with my own deck."

"They won't be happy to know you turned down seeking a potential."

"You speak as if they could actually do something about it."

"You can't bend your elders' rules all the time, Kurosaki, you'll learn that the hard way one day."

Ichigo set his Soul Aegis – a sphere made of several circles of golden symbols that suddenly appeared in his left hand – to cross the Severing World into Seiretei and replied with a slow bored monotone "Go to hell, Ishida…" before vanishing in golden dust.

The remaining Nephilim distractedly turned his silver cross in between his fingers, gazing the dark horizon. "I will… We all will, one day…"


	6. The Chariot

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Five – Tarot Card 7 The Chariot**

**Characteristics: **On the right track. The way of triumph.

"_To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor."_

_El Dorado_ R. L. Stevenson

***

As Ichigo arrived at Seiretei's front gate, Kojima Mizuiro arrived behind him shortly after. They both climbed the stairs to the main door together.

"Didn't Ishida return with you?"

"No, he's in Karakura Town, why?"

"I need him to carry one, I finally bound my latest potential."

"Isn't Keigo your Carrier?"

"Yeah, but Ishida ordered him to watch the Fathers with the Scepter of Retrieval, so he can't leave. Guess I'll have to ask someone else."

"No, go to Ishida, he told me another potential was sensed in you, he has a name for you to seek again."

The dark haired Nephilim stopped to turn back to the gate. "Aw man! I need to stop getting near the central aisle when I come back! The Fathers don't give me any rest! I always carry a scent they end up wanting!"

Ichigo chuckled on his way. "Shut up, you know you love it!"

"But if I'd be as fast as you, I could actually _rest_ in between!"

"You'll grow better. … Just not as great as me." And he opened the massive doors to get inside.

The Nephilim chambers were on the top floor around the center aisle. Ichigo didn't look down, but he knew by the lights and sounds the Fathers were still busy. He passed by the brown haired Carrier before reaching his chambers' door.

"If what they have down there is still the one I brought, seeing you with the Scepter of Retrieval is insulting, you know."

"You speak as if I don't have to obey the orders given to me."

"Then I give you another one: don't let anyone disturb me." And the sound of the door closing echoed across the room while down below, one of the angels rose his nose and inhaled the air before looking up with his fiery blue eyes.

Inside his chambers, the huge central chandelier immediately lit all the candles on it. Ichigo sat by a round table with a purple silk cloth and a candelabrum with three candlesticks opposite to him. He shuffled his Tarot deck and cut the cards in three piles before getting the whole deck together again.

"Now… tell me who Kuchiki Rukia is."

All the flames in the chandelier died down and the three candles on the candelabrum lit up. Ichigo took the first card and laid it on the table face down, reciting the positions. "Who you are…" he placed the second card crossing it, "what you abhor…" the third one on top, "what you like about yourself…" the fourth at the bottom, "what you don't like about yourself…" and the fifth directly to the right of the first one "your trump." Then he proceeded to make a column of cards to the right of the fifth card, placing the sixth at the bottom position, "Your temptation…" the seventh in the middle "your personal design…" and the eighth on top "and your guardian."

He waved his hand above the layout, the flames on the candles flickered, and all cards turned up at once. Ichigo widened his eyes at the spread presented before him. Eight positions, eight definers… eight Major Arcana. For the first time in his life, he actually doubted his deck, and skimmed through the remaining pile of cards just to make sure _there were_ Minor Arcana there. But all was normal, the deck was complete, just no Suit cards took part on her definers. He proceeded the reading, gently touching the cards, amazed with their beauty.

She was The High Priestess, the wise woman in her most intuitive and mysterious form. She detested The Fool, irrationality, being thoughtlessly led. She liked Justice in herself, her own ability to discern the right from wrong. She didn't like The Hanged Man, when she becomes a reason for sacrifice. Her trump was The Star, the ability to inspire. Her temptation was The Moon… he glanced at The High Priestess again and saw the relation in between both – what's hidden inside The High Priestess, searching for all the secrets within her deepest layers. Her personal design was The Empress, the woman in her most complete and rational form. He smiled with what it meant… a High Priestess who has mastered the Moon within her. And her guardian… The Emperor. The image of the man from the Kuchiki Manor gazing towards the rooftop where he had been earlier came to his mind. Power made man, this card wasn't a concept, it was a person. _That_ person.

He raised his hand to manipulate the spread, but stopped himself. It was too perfect, too beautiful. He stood there admiring the cards and delving deeper in their meanings for a few minutes, before finally getting them all back on the deck. He had never seen such a mortal, he just had to check her out personally.

When he left the chamber, the main aisle was dark and silent, but Keigo called him from the other side of the balcony.

"Ichigo! The Fathers demanded a potential from-"

"Get someone else to do it." He didn't even turn to face him.

"But-"

"I'm busy!"

Keigo sighed and walked away mumbling "… everyone's always busy… I should have been born a Seeker… then I'd be busy too… how am I supposed to tell the Elders he's busy…" and Seiretei's round center aisle became silent again as he left. The angels were merely waiting for their next visitor.


	7. The Moon

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Six – Tarot Card 18 The Moon**

**Characteristics: **Intuition and illusion. The inspiration and the subconscious are forces you should respect and be careful with.

"_She is the ruler of the tides of flux and reflux. The waters of the Great Sea answer unto her, likewise the tides of all earthly seas, and she ruleth the nature of woman."_

Dion Fortune

***

Kuchiki Rukia was closing the door of her gallery in the center of Karakura Town when she saw a familiar spiky orange haired man approaching from the sidewalk.

He held his hands up to the sides at shoulder level. "Hands off, I know!"

She looked at the key she was still holding to the lock, wondering if it was better to go inside again. But her body seemed normal, there was probably just something odd in the drinks last night to have made her so… she preferred not to find the word that could describe her bathroom escapade. "What are you, a stalker?"

"Hah. No, I just saw the name" he motioned the placard on top of the shop-window displaying 'Kuchiki' "and remembered it from last night, so I decided to check it out."

"You're late, I'm closing."

"I can see that, but I wanted to see you. I want to apologize."

"You already did."

"More extensively."

Rukia sighed. "You don't need to, my slap made us even."

"But doesn't justify me."

"If there was something that could justify you, you wouldn't get slapped to begin with."

_Justice_. He made his best attempt of a humble smile, as he tried to strike at her temptation instead. "Well, sometimes knowing the motivations behind other people's actions is key to discover our own."

Rukia looked to the side, remembering she couldn't grasp the motivation behind her sudden _carnal fit_ last night and maybe today she could shed some light on it. She looked sideways at the stranger. Not that she would tell him about the desires which assaulted her, but maybe knowing him better would help her find out what the hell got in to her in the club.

"If you're driving, or anything, I'll just return another time, but if you're walking, can I just walk beside you?" He knew she wasn't driving, he saw her walk there from the Kuchiki Manor that morning.

Rukia shoved her hands on her jeans' back pockets after dropping the keys inside her backpack and started to walk in a casual pace. "You may."

He followed her, also shoving his thumbs on his jeans' pockets. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, by the way."

"Kuchiki Rukia."

"Is the shop yours?"

"My brother's. But he lets me have my own paintings on it and run the most of it."

"You paint?"

"Yes. You're into art?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Depends on the art."

"My brother sculpts, he has a bigger gallery down in Tokyo, you might have heard of him, Kuchiki Byakuya?"

He grabbed the opportunity to try to flatter her. "I only know him as the brother of Kuchiki Rukia."

She smiled and shook her head. "Your objective is accomplished, I know the motivations behind your actions, you're simply a womanizer."

"Would it be wrong if I was?"

It was her time to raise an eyebrow. "Only when you cross your liberty with strangers who gave you no permit to."

"What if I'm used to strangers giving me permit?"

"You still get slapped by those who don't. You shouldn't be making a big deal out of it, if you're that loose around people you don't know, I'm sure it wasn't the first time."

Ichigo looked up. "Oh, you'd be surprised…"

She chuckled. "Really! Are you _that_ successful around women?!"

Ishida was right, humans were much better skilled with scraping his pride… "Would it scare you if I am?"

"No."

He frowned. "Really? For someone so strict, you should dread temptation."

"Only if I would fear myself. You're right, I am strict, but it's not the absence of temptation that defines strictness, it's the route one takes when faced with it."

"So it wouldn't scare you if I would usually have my way with women? You don't fear the possibility of becoming one of such women?"

"Some men have their way with women, some men have their way with me. Those who do are a direct consequence of who I am, why should I fear it? If some men are considered tempting, to fear that temptation would be to think me weak, as if I could forsake myself with being in their proximity. I don't. I know I don't, hence I trust myself and fear no one."

He smirked viciously. "Maybe you just weren't met with true temptation yet."

"A temptation I would give myself to would still be a direct consequence of what defines me as a person. And I can't fear discovering who I am, for better or for worse."

"What if something could change you?"

She raised her eyebrows. "Then I wouldn't be myself anymore, and you would have to ask those things to the person I would become, for my words now would be meaningless. But why do you ask such things?"

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "I was tempted to."

She blew the strand of hair that always comes back down her face. "As you were tempted to touch my back last night?..."

Ichigo looked down. "No. I confess I did that out of habit, women usually welcome my little attentions."

"So you just had to figure out the one who didn't."

"Am I that easy to read?"

"Was it worth the trouble?"

"You have _no idea_."

"Of course, learning about other people's motivations is sometimes key to discover our own… you're not trying to figure _me_ out, I'm just the mirror to what you did wrong, so you can go right next time you're met with something similar."

"I assure you, on that, you're mistaken, as the more I figure you out, the less I believe I'll ever meet anything similar." And he was just being honest.

Rukia grinned. "Oh, you're good!"

"Really?" His expression lit up all over, glad he pleased her without even consciously trying.

"Charming, no doubt. But you'll still get slapped if you touch me."

"Now you ruined the moment!"

"It's the end of the moment anyway." They were in front of Kuchiki Manor's gate. "This is where we part ways." And she opened the gate and went inside, closing it behind her.

Ichigo pouted against the bars. "You're just making excuses to send me off because you fear being womanized."

"You're the one making excuses to stall me because you can't conceive a woman you _can't_ womanize." She was already climbing the stairs towards the front door.

"If you're not afraid of being tempted, then tell me what works with you." Why was he asking this?...

She looked back. "There are not _things_ that work with me, there are _people_ who work with me."

"People?"

"Yes. Depending on who the person is, that person might work with me."

"Would I work?" Again, why the hell was he asking?... He was going to have her, period.

She chuckled. "I seriously doubt it, but I already told you I'm not afraid to find out. So drop by the shop any day, I don't mind the risk of being womanized if you won't mind the risk of getting a bigger blow on your ego." And she waved, before entering, closing the door behind her.

Ichigo rested his head against the bars for a bit, before walking away. His cards didn't lie at all. And he wanted her now more than ever before.


	8. The Hermit

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Seven – Tarot Card 9 The Hermit**

**Characteristics: **Good Sense. The divine temptation and the wisdom to be quiet.

"_That content surpassing wealth_

_The sage in meditation found,_

_And walked with inward glory crowned."_

P. B. Shelley

***

It was already evening when Ishida found Ichigo atop a sky scraper in Tokyo, focusing on a spread of cards.

"You haven't returned to Seiretei, I had to look for you all over the place, Kurosaki."

Ichigo answered without lifting his eyes from the cards. "I needed somewhere quiet."

"That's what our chambers are for."

"It's not quiet on our way there."

Ishida narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, before looking at the layout he seemed so absorbed with. "Is that her?"

He smiled. "Have you ever seen anything so perfect?"

He looked at the Seeker again through the corners of his eyes. "You seem quite infatuated…"

"I'm always infatuated with my own deck, it's part of my splendid divine being."

"And now you've met your match."

"Oh yeah… Ishida, this woman is something else, I wish I could make you feel the cards for you to get a glimpse of her. I've never seen such power in character before. It's like I'm _meant_ to have her."

"And you're still confident you'll be able to?"

"I _have_ to. There was never a woman I wished for so ardently."

Ishida narrowed his eyes again. "Then why are you taking so long? Don't you want to see me bowing to your indisputable superiority when I take her back to Seiretei?"

Ichigo suddenly faced towards Ishida, but didn't look at him. "Did the Fathers ask for her?"

He smirked. "Does it make a difference?"

"Did they?"

"She'll end up in the Covenant regardless, why are you asking?"

Ichigo faced forward again. "Well, if I end up failing, I don't want to be known for not being able to bind a potential."

"Ever since when do you even conceive the idea of failure on yourself?"

"Ishida, _did they ask for her_?"

He became serious again. "No… But you should know better than to believe it makes any difference."

"That's for me to tell. Anyway, why were you looking for me?"

"The best reason of them all, hoping to witness your lesson of humility, for once in your life. But my trip was in vain, all I see is infatuated contemplation."

Ichigo chuckled. "All your trips are in vain, when you seek humility in those who have no use for it. Before the sun rises again, I'll have the soul of the strongest human you've ever seen, and you'll learn the uselessness of your little depreciative attempts on me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a very powerful binding to work on, and I can't guarantee your safety if you remain in my proximity. You better leave, for the integrity of your soul – and mine – for, even though you are a nuisance spawning your abhorrence of me, I'd dread to see it transformed in a display of uncontrollable passion instead."

Ishida bowed. "For once, Kurosaki, the feeling is mutual. I shall flee to safety from your love creating devises." And his bright blue wings took him above and away, leaving Ichigo to focus on his mastery.

It would take a lot from him, no doubt, to manipulate eight Major Arcana at the same time, but that was not the only reason behind his delay. For the first time… it almost hurt him to change a spread, though every moment he spent without yet having her for himself was equally taxing. It was all very new to him, but, in his view, both aches would be brought to rest the moment he would have her in his arms. Similarly with lust, it consumes itself upon consummation, so it made sense in his mind these feelings also would.

He left The High Priestess in place and started to reorganize all the other cards in the spread. "You'll abhor your guardian…" and placed The Emperor crossing The High Priestess. "You'll like to inspire others…" and he laid The Star above it. "You'll dislike discerning right from wrong…" placing Justice below it. "Your trump will be your sacrifice…" and he positioned The Hanged Man to the right of The High Priestess. "Your temptation will be your own sexuality…" and he filled the bottom position of the right column with The Empress. "Your personal design, to lose yourself…" positioning The Fool in the middle. "And your deepest illusions will be all you'll have to guard you." as The Moon took the last position.

The layout was chosen, now it was time to bind the whole spread to her soul. He stood up, half raising his feathered wings and placed a hand on top of the layout. His eyes became aflame in bright blue, a flame which spread and soon surrounded his whole body in a massive fire. The feathers on his wings were being violently shaken as blown by a wind that ran to the sky, all the cards in the spread started to vibrate and struggle against their positions. Ichigo clenched his jaw and shouted in between his harsh breathing _"I… THUS… BIND… THEE… KUCHIKI… RUKIA!"_

A stronger air stream swept his form from below. The figures in the cards started moving, the wolf in The Moon howling, The Hanged Man screaming in agony, the woman in The Star breaking her jars, the sound of countless cries was deafening. In the middle, The High Priestess was voicing her suffering, as the moon behind her window became a man, ripping her fine white dress and stripping her from her rich hairdressings and accessories. Her palace fell apart, all that surrounded her was a bright yellow light, and the only adornment she had left on her body was a pink rose on her disheveled long hair. The man embraced her without facing further resistance, The High Priestess on the frame below the image had totally become… The Lovers.

The cries stopped, all images became still again and Ichigo fell to his knees, panting. He took the card and regarded it intently, praising both its beauty and his own achievement. "You're mine! Now you're mine!"

He had no time to waste, he grabbed his deck and flew back to Karakura, his anxiety overshadowing his exhaustion. Within a few minutes, he was already in human form, ringing Kuchiki Manor's bell outside the gate. The gate opened without anyone answering and Rukia showed up at the door, watching him intently. … or was it ogling?...

"Ichigo! That's a surprise!"

He grinned while walking towards her. "A pleasant one, I hope." She just bit her lower lip in reply. "Listen, I was wondering if you'd want to go somewhere tonight."

She smiled shyly. "Come in, wait for me in the living room, I'll just go upstairs to change."

"Oh, I can help with that too, if you wish…"

"No." Ichigo raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but she added with a lower tone. "My brother is home." That explains it… and he walked down the lobby while she climbed the stairs to her room.

The house was exquisitely furnished, a home of artists, no doubt. Oddly the enough, most themes were related with representations of divine beings. He was admiring the art on a wall, portraying a gathering of winged creatures, when he noticed he was being watched by a man with long dark hair who stood at a study's door frame.

"Oh, you must be Kuchiki Byakuya. I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, a friend of Rukia's."

The man looked like the personification of stoicism, he just stood there looking at him in a most unwelcoming manner. Ichigo isn't one to be bothered to play nice, so he just turned his back and continued looking at the paintings, until the man spoke.

"It is not within my nature to beg," Ichigo turned his head back to face him, but the man was looking at the floor. "but I beg this of you now." He finally raised his gaze to meet Ichigo's and it carried authority along with plea. _"Release her."_

Ichigo slightly raised his eyebrows with surprise, but dismissed Byakuya's words as artists' eccentricity. Frowning with suspicious admiration, as if faced with something ridiculous, he turned his back to return to the lobby.

The sudden raise of tone from Byakuya stopped him. _"I know what you are!"_

_No, he didn't_. But spiked by a tone he admitted to no mortal, Ichigo decided to do something any Nephilim would deem as foolish, but the urge to inflict dread on that human was strong enough to numb his mind to reason. As he faced Byakuya again, he released his Nephilim true form. The room was swept by a whooshing wind when Ichigo displayed his wings half opened to impose their dangerous marvel like an animal exhibiting its superior build to demoralize an opponent. Clad only with his black hakama, bare-chested and with his wings held in defiance stance, complete with the fiery blue irises, thus stood the Nephilim glaring the mortal who dared think he knew anything about him.

Byakuya didn't flinch. He didn't blink, he didn't raise an eyebrow… He didn't even move his glare away from Ichigo's eyes the whole time. So he _did_ know what he was. Maybe some Nephilim blew the pipe on him, or he was born with the ability to see hybrids. Either way, he didn't care. He raised his chin to acknowledge Byakuya wasn't wrong in his last statement, but added calmly _"Then you know she's already lost."_ and walked away to the lobby, returning to his human form.

Left alone, Byakuya closed his eyes and sighed. "Forgive me, Hisana… Your worst fear has come true…"


	9. The Lovers

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Eight – Tarot Card 6 The Lovers**

**Characteristics: **The Eternal doubt. The way of the flesh; the beauty and love.

"_My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,_

_And true plain hearts do the faces rest,_

_Where can we find two better hemispheres_

_Without sharp North, without declining West?_

_Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;_

_If our two loves be one, or, thou and I_

_Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die."_

_The Good Morrow_ John Donne

***

"So… where are we going? My friends went to Soul Society tonight, but I'll need to get my car if we are to go there as well."

Ichigo locked his fingers at the back of his neck. "Well… I was hoping you could show me your gallery, I'm interested on seeing what your art is like. I know it's closed, but I was wondering if I could be bestowed with a… private tour?..."

Rukia grinned. "I'm honored by your interest and shall grant your heart's desire."

_Wonderful choice of words_. Her mere mention of desire woke his incisively, but he was determined to make her wait. He still had the scars of rejection very present in his mind, he wanted to give her a taste of the same.

She turned the lights on, when they arrived. It was far more spacious than the shop-window made guess, the area filled with halls displaying the numerous collections. Again, the divine theme was very present, among representations of myths and winged creatures.

"Are they all yours?" Ichigo asked, while touching an embossed painting which showed the creator also had mastery in sculpting.

"Yes. My brother taught me some sculpting as well." She brushed her fingers on the contours. "I tried to give it the texture of skin." Her fingers followed the lines to meet Ichigo's hand, but he retrieved it from the painting before they could touch. A slight frown gave away her disappointment.

Ichigo walked back from the painting, but came behind her and whispered close to her right ear. "Why so many angels?"

Her eyes closed when she felt his breath warming her neck, but when she turned to face him, he was already distanced, observing another piece. She faced the painting again and blinked a few times, trying to control her breath to answer. "My brother… has always been inspired by divine themes… I think some of his fascination for the mythological influenced me as well."

It was her left ear's turn to be swept with his whisper. "What else fascinates you?"

She turned her face to kiss him, her half opened mouth as inviting as the gardens of Eden, but he eluded her attempt and turned his back, walking across the hall towards the desk. "A bit too forward tonight, aren't we, Miss Kuchiki?..." He stopped and closed his eyes, frowning. His efforts to torture her felt like masochism and he started to question the point on carrying it through, when his body seemed the one taking punishment for it.

She lowered her gaze to the side, nervously clenching her hands and blinking with confusion. "… I just thought… I thought that… maybe… we could…"

"Yeah, I thought about that too." Ichigo stated, as he hurriedly closed the distance between them and kissed her with all the violence of the desire he tried for too long to conceal. Once he tasted her, he would have cursed himself for depriving his mouth from her bliss for that long, if only he retained his ability to think.

He held her tight, as tight as the maddening fever of feeling her was holding the reins of his brain. And he couldn't stand the torture of releasing her, even when his hands were urging to wander all the voluptuous canvas underneath her clothes. So he drove a hand to lift the petite piece of heaven by the bottom, stealing a gasp from her which further bristled his lust, and pinned her against the wall, for the constant molding of their bodies to be imposed by his pressure. His original design was to only lift her, but his hand refused to leave the comfort of her core's proximity and gained an obstinate intent of reaching it, relentlessly grasping in between her legs. He was rewarded with Rukia's whimper against his mouth, and her legs clenching his sides with desperate vigor, further trapping her folds in between the pressure of his arousal and the tantalizing movement of his fingers.

His other hand slid down to claim purchase of her breast, strongly holding the whole mound and feeling the erect tip underneath the fabric against his palm. _Mine! Mine! All Mine!_ It was all his body screamed, when he lifted her top in one swift motion, craving to feast in her skin. And her body was the soft warm lure that intoxicated his veins with each ounce of flesh his touch could bathe in. Prey of his own compulsion, he raised her higher against the wall, to suckle all the inches his hand had probed, for touching hadn't felt enough. He licked her chest wildly, feverishly, wanting to taste all her skin at the same time, and groaning in frustration there was only so much his lips could hold in between them, at each time, for his tongue to rabidly sweep. And his urgency was contagious, dragging Rukia through the violence of a flaming maelstrom, helplessly meandering while drowning in pleasure.

He raised her even higher to taste the skin of her tight belly. His manhood was aching so much in piercing need for her, he pressed his panting face against her lower abs, clenching his teeth to try to tame his urgency, while holding her still to his frame with a strong grip around her hips. Held so high, his broad shoulders prevented her from being able to lock her legs around him, so her thighs were now squeezing the only part of his body they could still grasp – the hand that kept moving with a mind of its own against the damp lace of her underwear.

Ichigo closed his eyes to try to cool off his impetus, but his jaw moved with its own design, his teeth catching the fabric of her skirt to raise it with each bite, finally exposing her lace clad folds. The scent of her arousal drove him, alluring and irresistible like a mermaid's song, leading his face in between her legs, brushing her womanly lips over the delicate fabric, his tongue savoring her inner thighs and relentlessly trying to slip through the border held by the lace. She cried once more, clawing his scalp and tilting her head back, her legs fighting in vain the overpowering prison imposed by his torso.

He pulled her panties all the way down, bringing her leg over his shoulder and raising her further up the wall, holding her securely by the hip while allowing her other leg to take a similar position. She locked her ankles close to his armpits and raised her pelvis instinctively, when his tongue slid up her Venus valley to taste her juices and he started suckling her arousal with tortuously slow undulation. His hands held her torso against the wall, the pressure from his forearms keeping the skirt raised against her body. But soon his fingers trailed higher and higher, grabbing her breasts to brush his palms over the pert sensible tips.

As her ragged moans increased in tempo, Ichigo's hunger increased in haste, his tongue assaulting her aroused flesh with ardent fury. One hand slid down her torso again, trailing down her back and underneath, to bathe in the fluid of her desire and probe her inner walls with two fingers, pressing them up and forward, causing Rukia's body to straighten, her arms held up so her fingers can grip the wire netting which adorned the ceiling – her only contact with reality when all her body was diving deeper into numbing delight.

Ichigo tried to slow down when he felt her climax nearing, but his slight change of pace only made her ecstasy stronger and longer, waves from a stormy sea of pleasure crushing against the helpless breakwater of burning flesh. She screamed, jerking her body and tensing her thighs, while he drank her climax to feed an indomitable strive for her. When she released the netting, her whole body was trembling and all forms seemed hazy, or she would have noticed the supernatural bright blue in Ichigo's gaze, when he regarded her from in between her legs. It took a few seconds for the irises to become brown again, the violence of his desire was such that it became hard to contain the divine flame behind his eyes.

He slid her down the wall to quench the longing for her mouth, mixing the taste of her womanhood with the taste of her tongue in an aphrodisiac cocktail, proving him that, every time he thought his arousal just couldn't become any harder to bear, there was just another new level of want to be discovered with this woman. But his blissful torment would soon be over. He carried her to the desk, sweeping all papers which rested on top of it to the floor with one swift motion, and he laid her, undressing his shirt and unbuttoning his jeans, his manhood finally unshackled. Rukia was teasingly rubbing a knee up his hip.

He bent above her, pulled her hips to the edge of the desk and kissed her, aligning his eager erection with her anxious sheath. The moment he felt the tip touch the damp of her entrance, he tilted his head in a hiss.

"I love you."

His eyes shone blue for half a second when he heard her. He blinked repeatedly, looking at her big violet orbs. _Of course you do… I just bound you to love me, how could you not_. Her words were meaningless. And it was somehow bothering him. Images from earlier that day started to flash inside his mind.

"_There are not things that work with me, there are people who work with me."_

"_People?"_

"_Yes. Depending on who the person is, that person might work with me."_

"_Would I work?"_

Would he work if not for his power? Why did it look like it mattered?

"_Then I wouldn't be myself anymore, and you would have to ask those things to the person I would become, for my words now would be meaningless."_

Her love was a product of his binding and her words were now meaningless… And he felt like… He wished… they weren't. It was getting hard to breathe, as if his chest refused to heave properly. He closed his eyes and frowned, panting against her neck.

"Ichigo… Are you alright?"

He just nodded to reassure her and lifted his head to look at her again, caressing her face. So loving, so inviting… his Rukia… but he couldn't do it. He didn't know why, but it all felt wrong, all of a sudden. He still wanted her, maybe even more than before, but something was wrong and he couldn't understand it. He raised himself and sat at the edge of the desk, with his breath still struggling to become even and a strange stinging in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Rukia sat behind him and hugged him, kissing his shoulder softly.

"I don't know." And he took her hand, kissing her palm before holding it back to his chest. "Do you mind if we just stay here like this for a while?"

"Of course not." And she held him tighter, softly caressing his chest with her fingertips and resting her head against the side of his neck.

And his eyes stung again.


	10. The Wheel Of Fortune

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Nine – Tarot Card 10 The Wheel Of Fortune**

**Characteristics: **Fast movement. Destiny, change from above. Life subject to the invisible forces.

"_Free will is the ability to do gladly that which I must do."_

C. G. Jung

***

Ichigo had left her home and was now flying aimlessly through the night sky of Tokyo. The harsh air stream sweeping his body wasn't helping to cool down his confusion. Something was off with him. He had finally bound her, all he had to do was to take the trophy for his efforts, why did it feel like he would rather not have bound her at all? Was Ishida right?... Had he started to take pleasure in humiliation?... How would he? What's wrong with him? Why couldn't he take her? The mere glimpse of memory from her body was enough to arouse him during flight, he never wanted a woman so much, why in hell couldn't he take her? It made no sense!

He decided to return to Seiretei and check a place he seldom ever entered – the Covenant Archives. Maybe records from previous Nephilim could shed some light on what's going on with him.

As he arrived, a woman was being taken to Eve's Tower, a part from the massive household where no Nephilim was allowed, apart from the Watchers, the ones responsible for taking care of the women and preparing them for each meeting with the Fathers. It was apparently Mizuiro's latest potential, given Ishida had been the one to bring her. He spoke when he saw Ichigo heading for the Elder's Tower's entrance, instead of the main door that leads to the Seekers' chambers above the center aisle.

"Weren't you supposed to have someone for me to bring with you tonight?"

He walked past him without even looking. "She's not ready yet."

Ishida followed him, smirking. "Not ready?..."

Ichigo entered the Archives and started searching the tomes in a shelf for anything that seemed related with his particular problem. "Look, Ishida, it's my binding, don't tell me how to do it, given you can't know it better than me." And he walked away to skim through another shelf.

The Carrier followed him like a shadow. "Am I to presume the reading spread failed?"

Ichigo sighed with impatience. "No, the spread didn't fail. Just don't try to bring her, unless you crave the destruction of your Covenant. The binding wasn't consummated yet, but if you don't believe me, feel free to reveal yourself to her and try to take her in, I won't mind seeing her hand print on your face when you return."

"You're right, I'm finding it hard to believe you left her half bound…"

"Believe what the hell you want, just drop my case, Ishida."

"You do realize you just made her easier prey to other Nephilim, don't you? All they have to do is cover the distance in between what you already took from her soul and whatever little she still has left before consummation."

Ichigo turned his head back and held The Lovers card to Ishida. "She's bound to _ME_. No one can change that." And he faced forward again, taking a tome to better inspect its contents.

The Carrier neared behind him. "I don't know whether your reckless excess of confidence relies on blind trust over the power from your own incomplete binding, or foolish faith in her personal ability to resist a power other than your own. But, truth is, she's bound to _nothing_ until it's consummated. And this time, when life teaches you something you should already know, I won't be the _only one_ to enjoy rubbing it in your face the extent of your own ignorance." And he turned his back, walking away.

The Seeker smirked with disdain. "As if I'm supposed to care about what inferior Nephilim want to rub me with."

Ishida replied, while still pacing towards the exit. "Of course you aren't, no wonder Abarai is in Karakura tonight."

Ichigo widened his eyes and his breath was caught half way. The next moment, he wasn't there anymore, the tome fell loudly on the floor, and the rustle of parchments which were swept out of the shelves around the place he once stood made guess he had used his wings to exit the room through one of the high windows. It was all too fast to be properly registered though, even through hybrid eyes.

One such hybrid complained from another side of the Archive. "Who did that? Damn rookies! It's forbidden to fly inside the household!"

Ishida was already outside, smirking to himself. "See, Kurosaki? _Now you care_."

Back in the real world, Rukia's head was aching strongly. She felt trapped, it was like the walls in her room were closing down on her, along with the inner walls from her skull that looked like they were squeezing her brain. She couldn't think straight, she needed air.

Only clad with a short blue satin nightdress, she walked out the Kuchiki Manor into the terrains that spread behind it, her bare feet not minding the cold grass they stepped on. Invisible to her, a red winged hybrid with equally bright red long hair was following, leisurely twirling three dice between his fingers. Her particular apparel – or lack thereof – was erotically pleasing to his eyes. _This will be fun…_

For minutes, she walked, unsure whether she was being driven to, or trying to escape from a choking grasp that seemed to follow her persistently. It was like something was being ripped from her head by force, and she couldn't make it stop. She fell to her knees and kept trying to reach somewhere in all fours, supporting herself to a tree to stand up and walk straight again. She held her head in despair, as even hope seemed to elude her. She collapsed against something warm, her brain slightly producing an illusion of safety, before it just couldn't take anymore and dove into unconsciousness.

Holding her dismayed form securely against him, with both his wings bent forward and around her as if to further shield her from the world and better stress the impermeability on the borders of his ownership, Kurosaki Ichigo stood tall before the red winged Seeker who pursued her.

_"Release her, Renji."_ Everything in him was menacing. His tone, his stare, his pose, even having a small human woman held against him didn't hinder the aggression filling his aura.

He was taken aback, he had never seen Ichigo like this, but he was determined not to deem as futile his trip to Karakura. "What are you talking about? She's a potential to my Covenant, and you left her half bound!"

"She's mine. Either you get your dice out from her by your own means or by my force, it's your choice."

Renji shook his head. "You _can't_ be serious! Ichigo, it's me here, ok? You've always let me take girls from you before, you know how strict they are with us in Hueco Mundo Covenant! She's a potential, they'll fry my arse if I fail to bring her a second time!"

"I'll do worse than that, if you insist on trying to bind her."

Renji raised his chin. "You're crazy… But I'm not getting my skin lashed because of you, I'll fight you for her if I have to, you can draw your scepter and try your best shot." And he produced a red staff with a flaming dice on top, his personal weapon, as part of him as his own dice.

Ichigo curved his lips in a sinister smile. "Do you really expect me to produce my scepter and play spar with you?... Tell me, Renji, do you know why I'm the most feared among our race?... I hold Death itself at the flip of a card." And he showed Death to his opponent, a hooded skeleton riding a white horse over a field of moribund, portrayed in the card he held. "So why would I clash sticks with you, when I can easily eradicate you where you stand?"

Renji walked back, horrified. _"You wouldn't… It's forbidden!"_

"It's also forbidden to steal a Nephilim's prey!"

"I'm stealing from no one! I checked with Ishida! Seiretei hasn't demanded for her! She's free game, not stolen!"

"_It's stealing from ME!"_ Ichigo spat in between clenched teeth.

Renji spread his arms to the sides and kept trying to reason with the other Seeker. "What's the matter?... Huh?... Have you gained a fetish for her build, do you want so badly to have fellow Nephilim on your Covenant who look like her, or what?... What difference does it make to you whether she ends up in Seiretei or Hueco Mundo?!? It makes a difference to MY Fathers, since they asked for her, and to ME for being punished if I fail to bring her! Get a grip, man!"

"I won't ask you again, Renji, by your will or mine, you're unbinding her, there's not a third option and I'm running out of patience." He lit the blue fire in his irises to further enlighten the other Seeker about his next move.

Renji raised his palm towards Ichigo. "Don't do this, man, they'll shackle you for life…"

"Still better off than you, who'll cease to exist. Time's up." And he flipped up the card.

"_WAIT!!"_ He shook his dice with a swift motion and held them in between his fingers, for Ichigo to see the exquisite carvings – signs from Rukia's soul – were gone. And he closed his hand around the dice, leaving one finger extended to point at Ichigo. "You… _are crazy_. There's a reason why Nephilim aren't born with that great a power, it screws with your head! … Killing a Nephilim to unbind a damned human! They should find a way to seal that deck of yours, man, you freaking lost it!" And his wings spread and drove him up and the farthest away from there, as fast as they could.

Ichigo rested his nose on her head and inhaled the sweet scent of her raven strands, relieved. _Mine_. He held her more tightly, realizing he had no choice. He had to possess her completely, he could not bear the risk of losing her to another Seeker again. He scowled his eyes shut. _Mine!_


	11. The Fool

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Ten – Tarot Card 0 The Fool**

**Characteristics:** Instinct and inconsequence. To advance impulsively towards the unknown.

"_O'er rough and smooth she trips along,_

_And never looks behind;_

_And sings a solitary song_

_That whistles in the wind."_

_Lucy Gray_ William Wordsworth

***

It was believed the chances a human had to break her binding increased exponentially, if faced with the Nephilim's true form before her soul would be totally possessed. Whether he intended to flatter himself with the unbreakable hold he had on her, or actually hoped she could break her shackles all together and deem herself impossible to be bound by any hybrid's power, he could not tell. All he knew was he didn't shift into a human form and remained a visible winged creature when she woke up supported against him.

"Ichigo… What happened?..."

"I found you stumbling in the woods and I caught you when you fainted." He let go of her so she could distance herself from him and see his full figure.

"My head felt like it was going to… burst…" When she saw the wings adorning his form, her expression became shocked. "My God!... Are those real?"

He regarded her wearingly. Half expectant and half afraid. "Yes. I'm a Nephilim, Rukia. Part human and part angel."

"Part angel?..." She slowly walked towards him.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

She raised her eyebrows, still admiring the bright orange feathers slightly waving with the breeze. "Well… this is definitely bizarre… but I told you before, I'm never afraid of you." Ichigo was still too weary to be relieved. It was the first time he ever revealed his form to a human he hadn't completely bound. "Can I touch them?"

He nodded and slightly spread a wing for her easier reach. She first shyly combed the feathers with her fingers. Ichigo absent-mindedly smiled, it was the first time his wings were caressed, it was a completely new sensation.

"So beautiful… and soft… and so warm!" She enthusiastically stated, while turning and tucking her back to the wing's shelter. But she winced in surprise when Ichigo motioned his wing to throw her body against his, passionately stealing a kiss.

He wanted to show her what it feels like to master the sky and whispered against her lips "Are you afraid of heights?... I won't let you fall."

She smiled with her eyes half closed. "I know you won't let me fall." And she spread her arms to the side, imitating wings. "Take me."

He kissed her again and she screamed against his mouth when he suddenly stole the ground from underneath her feet with a flap of his massive wings. The warmth from his body contrasted the cold air stream sweeping her with their incredible speed.

When they gained a considerable altitude, he held his wings stretched to ride the wind, as he molded her body underneath him, licking her neck and ear, competing his tongue against the wind for her to find out which sent more chills down her spine. Her moans proved his tongue was the victor.

As they crossed the skies of Tokyo, in between the sky scrapers and gigantic luminous advertising screens, he grabbed her waist and stretched his arms, to fully regard her airborne form with all the city lights reflecting on her skin and the wind rustling her raven strands and delicate blue nightdress, as she lay underneath him, her body parallel to his. He wondered who really was part angel in between them, for her beauty challenged the gates of Heaven.

With a swift movement, he turned her around to face the streets under them, stealing another scream of surprise, followed by a happy laughter, when she saw the world like he did, as if she was flying herself. She spread her arms to delve in the flight, securely held by his strong hands. They turned diagonally, catching another air stream to carry them, and Ichigo flapped his wings to increase speed and altitude once more.

He locked his arms around her delicate body to hold her close again, warming her and being tickled by raven locks that violently brushed his neck. He suckled on her shoulder and indulged his palm on her breast over the soft satin, warming the tip under his thumb. She could clearly feel his erection pressed against her bottom, and she spread her legs, locking her heels around his hakama to welcome the pressure, while he lowered a wing and made them spiral repeatedly around themselves, seemingly flying towards the distant low moon. When he used his other hand to slide down her pelvis and find her wanting folds underneath the satin, she moaned and closed her eyes to the scenery below her, no longer distinguishing to which side the ground stood, shook in between the aerial acrobatics performed by his wings and the whirlpool of pleasure ministered by his fingers.

He pressed himself more strongly against her, using all the muscles of his arms to hold her close, while his hungry fingers rabidly played the strings with lust's tune, his wings majestically dominating the sky. Bathed by the moonlight, he turned up, giving them a vertical position, suspended in the air, with his wings flapping slowly, to the same rhythm his fingers were sliding over Rukia's erect flesh. Gaining just a bit of altitude with each feathered flap, he softly nipped the back of her neck, until he caught her ear and moaned while nibbling the lobule, inflamed with her whimpers and the compulsive twitching whims her body was possessed with. He pulled the strip down her shoulder, to expose her breast's skin to his touch and raised a knee to lift her and spread her thighs further, allowing him better reach in the slippery estates of her womanhood.

With each flap of orange wings, her body was bumped higher with his, his brushing on her pink pert tip sent another bolt of delight, his fingers reached higher underneath her and his palm rubbed her pelvis more vigorously – the canvas of her body's rendition to the incoming flood of ecstasy, complete with the fiery song he was singing to her ear. Thus came Kuchiki Rukia, screaming her orgasm to the sky, until Ichigo leaned back, wrapping his wings around them and freely falling down the heights with the tide of her pleasure.

She couldn't discern gravity from her own release, cradled inside his embrace and shielded by his wings. She couldn't tell how deep they fell, until she heard the flapping sounds again and felt the shift of direction. Ichigo flew high, but no air stream could cool down his desire anymore. He turned her to face him, circling her legs around his waist, his erection aching with the proximity to the wet abode of its desire.

He raised a hand to grab the edge of the tallest sky scraper in his field of sight, and used the ledge on a window of its last floor to support his footing, raising a knee and pressing it against the wall, for Rukia to sit on top of his thigh. His other hand cupped her cheek and softly caressed her face. His eyes were shining a bright blue which wasn't a reflex from the clear horizon, signaling the sun yet to rise.

"Your eyes…"

"The flame of my heavenly ancestry is hard to conceal when I'm consumed with desire…"

She smiled and started to suckle the tensing muscles of his chest. He closed his eyes, savoring her caresses and lowered his head, winding paths in between her strands with his nose, delving deeper in her sweet scent. He kissed her forehead, nibbling her nose as she started to tilt her head back in search for his lips. He first sucked her lips softly, before letting his tongue roam free, her taste ragging his breath, all his urgency starting to erupt. Her legs started to grip his sides with invigorated strength, when he slid his hand underneath the satin's edge at her thigh all the way up her torso, tracing all her contours, until finally claiming purchase of her mounds. He missed tasting them, he missed feeling the pert nipple against his tongue, so he lowered his hand to grab her bottom and lift her frame against him, then lowered the nightdress' strips down her shoulders with his teeth and damped her chest with the fervor from his mouth, flipping her tips with frenzied twirls of his tongue.

He didn't remember when he made his hakama disappear, but he could tell the tip of his manhood was licking Rukia's flesh, though he couldn't discern whether the wetness came from his body or hers. His hips raised, following the lead from his eager erection, while his fingers gripped her bottom more fiercely, animated with the overwhelming strive for fusion in between their bodies. When the head found the entrance to her core, he gasped against her breast, bringing her hips down to sheath himself completely. She raised her knees and straightened her hips to better accommodate him, moaning to the sensation of finally holding him inside her.

_Mine! All mine!_ Even his wings raised the edges and clenched towards each other at the center under the vehemence of his body finally possessing her. He regarded her with incandescent blue orbs, as he ran his fingers down her face, her neck, her collarbone, her breasts, her satin clad torso and around her waist to her back, bringing her body against his and stealing a gasp from her throat with one strong thrust from his hips. _Mine!_

Drown by the warmth of her tight hold around his manhood, he started to rock against her, while she clawed the muscles on his back and nipped the sensible flesh on his chest, undulating her pelvis to their own need's content. He nibbled her cheek pleading for her lips, while massaging her tight bottom and caressing her thigh, raising her knee further up his ribs, to reach deeper inside of her with each mind numbing drive up her core. She tilted her head back under delight's pull and he was finally able to savor her mouth again, delivering all his passion and losing himself with hers.

When their trip to ecstasy became as untamable as a furious train without breaks heading for the stars, he held her tighter amidst their frenzied motions and demanded close to her ear with a ragged voice "Rukia… say my name."

She could hardly understand him, reality fleeing from underneath her feet, but she muttered the only thing she could "Ichigo!"

"Say you're mine." He could barely hold himself back any longer, but he needed to hear it and pleaded further when her reply came as incongruous whimpers. _"Say… you're mine!"_

Her eyes were firmly shut when she managed to oblige "I'm yours… Ichigo!" and her walls clenched around him while her body tensed, her nails carving his flesh with the wrath of climax.

His release was strong enough for him to groan soundly, when his loins exploded in pulsing pleasure, shaking every cell of his body, arching his tensed wings and flooding her sheath with his juices. He embraced her tightly, panting over her shoulder. "You're mine. You're only mine."

When their bodies stopped trembling and they gathered their breaths, he released the edge, flapping his wings to land them both on top of the sky scraper. He returned his hakama to clad his lower body and sat on the parapet.

"Look! The sun is rising. It's beautiful from up here." she pointed. He reluctantly released her body, so she could walk towards the eastern side, to watch the sun rise.

He took the time to ask his deck for the card which related to Rukia and his hand flipped the numberless Major Arcana The Fool. It was complete, all her soul was on his deck, but he couldn't understand why it ached inside his chest to even look at the card. He ran a hand on his orange scalp, trying to solve his dilemma, when a familiar voice interrupted him.

"Congratulations, Kurosaki, I bow to your indisputable mastery!" Ishida was behind Rukia, already setting his Soul Aegis on her hand.

"_NO!_ Ishida, she's not ready yet!" and he stood up to stop him.

"Oh, she looks ready to me!" and he slid his tongue up her neck. Rukia's eyes were fixed on Ichigo, but when she closed her eyes with abandon, the sight of her taking pleasure under someone else's caress was so wrenching Ichigo lost the strength on his legs and unwillingly sat back down on the parapet, aghast. Ishida smirked of amusement with his dumbfound expression and they both disappeared in golden dust.

"_ISHIDA, WAIT!"_ He plunged to reach them, but it was too late. Panting in despair, he materialized his Soul Aegis on his left hand, but he couldn't see the symbols clearly, his sight was blurred. He growled with frustration and urgency, trying to calm his pulse, finally setting the course to Seiretei, as the first rays of sunlight reached him. A new day was born. And his dream was over.


	12. The Hanged Man

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Eleven – Tarot Card 12 The Hanged Man**

**Characteristics: **Destiny. Probation and sacrifice are the price of liberation.

"_I know I hung on that windy tree,_

_Swung there for nine long nights,_

_Wounded by my own blade,_

_Bloodied for Odin,_

_Myself an offering to myself:_

_Bound to the tree_

_That no man knows_

_Whither the roots of it run."_

The Speech of the High One from the Old Norse, _The Poetic Edda_ (ca. AD 1200)

***

When Ichigo arrived at the gates of Seiretei, Rukia was being taken to Eve's Tower. He tried to follow her, but the Guardians crossed their scepters in front of the entrance.

"Only Watchers are allowed!"

Unable to pass through, he turned back and followed Ishida, who was heading for the center aisle, screaming to his back. "Why did you bring her?"

Ishida kept walking. "Keep your voice down, Kurosaki. The Fathers demanded her."

He kept the loudness in his words, echoing through the hall. "How could the Fathers have asked for her today, when I haven't crossed the central aisle since Friday?!"

The Carrier's tone was still calm. "The Fathers demanded her two days ago."

Ichigo hurriedly closed the distance between them and forced Ishida to face him, grabbing the collar on his small white cloak. "You told Renji _yesterday_ Seiretei didn't demand for her! _You're lying to me!_"

By now, several other Nephilim approached them, seeking the source of the ruckus on the balcony above the main aisle. Ishida calmly replied "I'm not lying to you. I lied to Abarai." and he shook Ichigo's hand away, resuming his way towards his chambers.

Ichigo stood there staring blankly, mumbling to himself, finally putting the pieces of a painful puzzle together. "… you lied to… you made me…" and he dashed towards Ishida, screaming in anger _"YOU MADE ME BIND HER, YOU SON OF A-"_ but two Nephilim restrained him, trying to calm him down.

Ishida kept walking. "Careful with your particular choice of words, Kurosaki. One might be lead to assume you would betray your Covenant and make us believe her impossible to be bound, if you had known the Fathers wanted her…"

Ichigo kept trying to release himself from the limbs holding him. "How could you?... _WHAT KIND OF A DEVIL ARE YOU??_"

The Carrier stopped and turned to face him, frowning with admiration. _"Devil?!..."_ And he walked back to his accuser. "You still don't get it, do you?... You're too damn dense to figure out the formula! I'm the same as you… We're Nephilim, this is what we are, this is what we do. _All we do._ Maybe now you finally learned your place in this world." He turned back and walked away.

Ichigo shook his captors to try to follow him, but Tousen, the Covenant's head Nephilim, neared him. "This display of contempt for the holy place of our Fathers' aisle is unforgivable! I'm calling the Elders to a council meeting, so we can decide your proper punishment! Until then, I'm not allowing any more of your disordering behavior in this house! You are to remain in your chambers until called for, or I'll shackle you in the dungeons myself! Are we understood, Seeker?"

Ichigo only clenched his jaw. When the Nephilim released him, he headed for his chambers and threw the door closed. Once inside, he directed his anger towards the furniture, growling as he kicked the chairs and threw the table, breaking the candelabrum and spreading the candles on the floor. There was something wet running down his face and he nonchalantly touched the dampness with his palms, staring horrified at the transparent liquid that his hands brought from his face and gasping in confusion and disgust, as if the fluid was an alien burning imprecation. His eyes lit bright blue with anger and despair. He walked back and forth like a caged animal, his lips stretched to show the clenched teeth behind. It hurt. His chest was aching, there was something in his throat that didn't let him breathe, and each inhale was soundly taxing.

He punched the wall, then clawed at it, his sight was blurry and he started feeling weak and dizzy, sliding down the wall to the ground, his wings limply spread apart. He felt exhausted, beaten down like a horse trained to lose a race, his body ached like it was being crushed in between stone, his throat was dry and sore. He had never known pain before, he had never known what if felt like to have his insides cracking and ripping apart. He was a Nephilim, this is what he has done all his life, and he couldn't understand why now he was being pierced with sharp fanged jaws that seemed to extinguish the very life out of him.

_DONG_ – Ichigo gasped as he suddenly raised his head. Despair burning deeper in his bright blue irises, now surrounded by a red tonality in his wide eyes. Down below, the torches were catching flame, illuminating the whole ground floor of the central isle, signaling the arrival of a guest to the Fathers' plunder.

_DONG_ – Ichigo contorted his face, shutting his eyes and hissing his ragged breath through his clenched teeth. His stomach tightened with pain and his fingers helplessly clawed the marble underneath them.

Clad with the satin robes meant for the potentials, Rukia was crossing the central aisle to the angels' lusting feast. In one of the chambers above her, from where no sound could transpire through the fissures, Ichigo held his head back and screamed all the air in his lungs to the heavens. But Heaven's too far from a Covenant, and there was no one to listen.

_DONG_


	13. The Tower

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Twelve – Tarot Card 16 The Tower**

**Characteristics: **Downfall. Chaos, catastrophe, unbalance.

"_It is the business of the future to be dangerous… The major advances in civilization are processes that all but wreck the societies in which they occur."_

_Adventures in Ideas_ Alfred North Whitehead

***

When the door closed, Rukia glanced her surroundings. From behind the pillars, men started approaching her silently. Their eyes were luminous, much like the way Ichigo's orbs would become sometimes. Yet, they had no wings, and Ichigo wasn't among them. She missed him.

One of them reached her and brought down her hood, stroking the strands of her hair. She felt someone else circling an arm around her waist, and the hand which caressed her hair earlier was now untying her cloak, while someone else pulled her robes by the sleeves, revealing her shoulders. She was still wondering where Ichigo was.

Suddenly, a strong wind swept her, startling everyone surrounding her, and all turned to see The Tarot Master, with his massive orange wings held high and holding a black scepter, landing on a knee in the middle of the isle.

"_DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!"_ Ichigo roared, plunging his Tower card against the marble floor and emanating a blue flame as he focused his power.

The ground shook, cracks crawled up the columns around them and the massive dome above started to shatter, chunks of exquisitely carved stone falling down.

As all the angels released her and tried to flee back to escape the creaking dome, Rukia stood there at the center, still looking at Ichigo. He swiftly reached her, holding her against him and shielding her petite frame with his wings.

"I said I wouldn't let you fall."

He drew a circle on the floor around them with the orb of the scepter. When the circle was complete, its power activated, the line shining and becoming a cylinder of light all the way from the floor until the crumbling ceiling. When the light died down, they were both gone.

At the balcony, several Nephilim were exiting their chambers, startled with the disturbance. One of them was Tousen.

"What happened?"

A Carrier answered him. "It was Kurosaki! He took the potential!"

"Took her how?!"

Asano answered him from the other side of the balcony, holding his bleeding nose. "The Scepter of Retrieval! I'm sorry, I couldn't stop him!"

"The Scepter of Retrieval, is he out of his mind?! Is he going to kill her?!"

"No…" Ishida's low voice answered him, making his presence noticed behind the other Carrier. Though he seemed to be talking to himself, staring blankly at the ground. "He's setting her free…"

"I've had enough of his lunacy! Call the Watchers to care for the Fathers! All Guardians are to come with me to the Far Reaches!" And Tousen exited the balcony, surrounded by several other Nephilim.

Ishida stood still in the balcony, seemingly lost in thought and clenching his jaw, until he woke up from his stupor and followed them.

Several leagues away, at the so called Far Reaches of Seiretei, the farthest parchment of land on that dimension, so that the humans which broke their binding could be thrown into the Severing World without chance of damaging the Covenant's household, stood Ichigo and Rukia, brought by the power of the Scepter of Retrieval. He was still hugging her, panting from the effort and savoring the relief of having her back in his arms. One last time.

He finally released his embrace and knelt in front of her, composing her robes before holding her left palm up while he spoke, focused on his task. "We don't have much time, they'll arrive here soon. This is a Soul Aegis." He materialized his devise and passed it to her hand, moving the symbols to set the destination. "It crosses the Severing World. I'm setting it to take you to your house, so when you walk through these clouds you see here where the land ends, don't be afraid, you won't fall anywhere, you'll just arrive at the Kuchiki Manor. Understand?"

"Aren't you coming with me?"

Ichigo knitted his eyebrows together, while still trying to finish the coordinates in the orb, to try to bear the stinging in his eyes. "I can't. This is my Soul Aegis, I can't cross without it. Either way… trust me, five minutes from now, you won't want me anywhere near you. In fact… I know I should return your soul to you right now, but… losing you is already all the pain I can take, I won't bear seeing your hatred of me reflected in your eyes." He raised his head to finally look at her. "I prefer to remember you like this…" He caressed her cheek. "Always loving… My Rukia…" He looked down to finish the coordinates on the orb. "Just until you cross to the real world, and then I'll release your soul, and you won't be mine anymore."

"I don't want to leave you."

He closed his eyes and tears started rolling down his face. He stood up and hugged her tightly, wishing for the life of him he wouldn't have to let go. "I know… I know… but it's just for a little while and it will all be over soon, I promise." He knelt down to face her again, holding her by the shoulders. "When you arrive, tell your brother you're safe, understand? The binding was complete, even when I return your soul to you, it's still bound to my deck. Even if they kill me, my deck dies with me, you can't be bound to anything else. No Nephilim can ever…" His voice started to break, as new tears flooded his eyes. "harm you again… understand?... You tell that to your brother. God, you'll hate me so much!" And he hugged her tight, drying his tears amidst her locks. All his body was shaking. "And I'm so sorry!... So sorry for what I've done to you!..." And he pulled back to face her again, holding her cheeks. "But know this! When you wake up in your house and hate me to death, know this:… I… In all my life, in all the decades I spent among heavenly creatures… you were the only true glimpse of Heaven I ever had!"

He kissed her, tasting her sweetness for the last time, before having to set her free. He hugged her again, crying uncontrollably, his broken voice against her shoulder. "I wish things had been different… I wish I could start it all over again… no tricks… just you and me… I'd work hard for your love… I swear I'd be worthy of it this time… I swear to God… you'd be mine… really mine… I'd make you happy… I swear…" And he screamed to fight the agony of his fate, his voice carrying the mourning of a tortured wreck. It felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest in cold blood and he couldn't stop the trembling in all his aching muscles.

Ichigo slowly pushed her away from him. "Now go, they'll be here soon... Go!" She reluctantly walked towards the mist, looking back at him with sad eyes. When the last trace of her was engulfed in the Severing World, he whipped his nose and his cheeks with a hand and took her card from his deck. His eyes lit up to summon his power and he released her soul back to its original form. "I release thee… Kuchiki Rukia." The colorful joker near a cliff's edge started to be surrounded by palace walls, his figure changing color and form, becoming a richly adorned woman in a white dress, while behind her window the day became night and the moon rose in the sky. The High Priestess was back, all he wanted and could never hold again. He brought the card to his lips and closed his eyes to whisper "Goodbye, my love."

Behind him, the sound of flapping wings announced the arrival of his pursuers, and he turned to greet them with a firm glare. Tousen was the one to speak.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, your rebellious behavior is unforgivable and shall cost you your life!" He plunged his green scepter to slash Ichigo's body apart, but a bright blue scepter with a glowing cross at the head frustrated his objective. "Ishida?! What's the meaning of this?"

"Let's not be hasty. Kurosaki's behavior is grave, to be sure, but something as definite as an execution should be decided under Elders' council, after proper discussion. He should be locked in the dungeons until a verdict is reached within all the Elders."

Tousen regarded Ishida, then directed his gaze towards Ichigo, who was also looking at his Carrier with awkwardness reflected in his expression. "Very well. Take him away and lock him."

Ichigo was surrounded by the strong Guardians and escorted to his prison in the deepest catacombs of Seiretei, where the metal bars themselves kept a Nephilim's power sealed within them.


	14. Death

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Thirteen – Tarot Card 13 Death**

**Characteristics: **End of a cycle. The beginning of rebirth.

"_For that which is born death is certain, and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over that which is unavoidable."_

Bhagavad-Gita

***

Ichigo was sitting on his cell when Ishida leaned against the wall on the outside, watching him through the glowing white bars.

"You've really excelled your mediocrity this time, Kurosaki… From the looks of it, the Elders are having trouble deciding which punishment would do worse to you, execution or being locked in these depths until you wish to terminate your miserable life by your own hands."

He kept his head resting against the stone wall, dismissive towards Ishida's words. "You know, Ishida… I feel like I actually have to thank you. If not for the way you tricked me into binding her, she would never be completely ridden from the risk of ending up in a Covenant one day…"

Ishida narrowed his eyes with disdain. "Che. Was it worth it?"

He closed his eyes and curved his lips, proud. "Oh yeah!…"

The Carrier walked across the corridor towards the bars. "It seems to me you're having a problem related with lack of perspective, Kurosaki. The woman you seem so proud to have saved, earned her right to live a perfectly normal life, like billions of others do, while you, for the sake of that, will either die soon or spend several of her lifetimes locked in here. In between which, the end result will be the same, as she'll be dead and gone, while you'll still be locked here for her sake. So tell me, what higher purpose have you achieved, for I fail to see the grandeur of your change in the course of things. I ask you again: _was it worth it?_"

Ichigo smiled and sighed. "No, Ishida… It's you who are missing perspective here… You see, whether I die soon, or several of her lifetimes from now when she's already dead and gone… when I look back into my life, getting her out of here was the only good I've ever done. No matter if I look at it now, or if I look at it centuries from now, it's still the best thing I could ever do." And he raised his lids to look Ishida in the eyes. "And still better than anything you'll ever do too. So you can bet your damned sorry arse it was worth it."

The Carrier closed his eyes, knitting his eyebrows together in thought. After a moment, he spoke again. "Allow me to try not to fall too far behind then." And he started to inspect the lock in the door.

Ichigo asked him lazily "What are you doing now, Ishida?"

"Keys to one's soul aren't the only things a Metal Rune Master can do." He stated, as he opened the cell's door. Ichigo straightened himself on his seat, staring at his Carrier with disbelief when he entered the cell and held his Soul Aegis for the Seeker to take. "Get out of here, Kurosaki."

Ichigo wasn't believing his eyes. "What are you doing, Ishida? Trying to buy your place into Heaven?"

The blue winged Nephilim smiled sadly and looked to the side with a distant gaze. "No… not Heaven… I wouldn't bear seeing her hateful eyes on me again…"

Ichigo widened his eyes with realization. His fellow hybrid had loved in the past. "Ishida…"

"Make no mistake, Kurosaki, I still hate you, now more than ever. I've always hated you, as I hate myself for doing what I do, and you could do it even better than me." He turned his back. "You see… I didn't save her… and all these years I fed myself with the lie that I _couldn't_ have saved her. There was nothing I could do. It was all I had to keep me together, the conviction that _there was nothing I could do_, even though deep inside, I knew it wasn't true." He faced him again. "But you had to steal that from me. You had to do it, you had to save her. You had to shove it in my face I could have done it, and rub me in on how it was worth it." Ishida narrowed his eyes. "_I hate you, Kurosaki_… But now I even hate myself more." He held his Soul Aegis forward again. "Go on, take it, before my benevolent mood changes."

Ichigo took the glowing sphere into his left hand. "Ishida, they'll know you released me. Come with me. You're a Carrier, you don't need your Soul Aegis to cross through. Come with me, escape this damned place."

He was moved with Ichigo's plea for a second and softened his features, smiling sadly. "No… I delayed my due punishment for long enough. Besides… if there's any good in this whole situation, it's that I'll never have to lay eyes on you again. Go, Kurosaki, before I regret my mercy."

Ichigo held his shoulder "Thank you." and ran up the corridors.

"Farewell." He stood facing the wall in the cell, taking his silver cross and opening the front layer to gaze the image inside. "Time to pay for my sins."

Back when he was still a Seeker, he had loved her. Before he knew how to name the way he felt for her, she was taken to the Fathers. He screamed that night. He screamed so much he lost his voice for two weeks. But he did nothing. When the Covenant found out she couldn't bear children, she was never brought there again. Generally, the love for the Covenant is so strong, humans die of suffering after spending years away from it. He thought he could prevent that from happening. He released her soul and hoped for her forgiveness. Her words were still carved inside his mind, as vivid as if he could see her right now.

"_How could you do this to me?"_

"_I had to, the Covenant had asked for you, I couldn't-"_

"_I HATE YOU! You ruined me!"_

The hatred in her eyes burned his mind. He had hoped. In vain. Shortly after she persuaded him to leave her presence, she threw herself off a cliff, not bearing living with herself after being so irrevocably abused by a Covenant of damnation that twisted her soul and her fate. That's how he learned who he really is and what his life really consisted of. He could never bring himself to do seeking again, but still carried the sins of his nature with the job of a Carrier. It was time. It was time for it to end.

Tousen's voice was heard behind him. "What are you doing here? Where's Kurosaki?"

Ishida replied with his natural calm, his back turned. "I don't know, but I'd be on my way towards the gate, if I were him."

"What use is the gate for him if he doesn't have his Soul Aegis anymore? How was his cell opened?"

Ishida inhaled and closed his eyes, replying with a bored tone. "Just do the math and get this over with."

Tousen produced his scepter in rage. _"I'll take no more of this insubordination!"_

Blood was splattered on the stone walls. The thud of a body lying lifeless was heard. Close to the bench and speckled with red, the limp hand was still holding a silver cross with the picture of a young girl with long hair the color of caramel. Her blood in his hands replaced with his own.

Across the dungeon, Kurosaki Ichigo was trying to reach the exit, using his orange scepter with the circling images of the four Suits crowned by a flaming sphere on top to fight the Guardians in his path and trying to outrun the ones pursuing him. He couldn't use his deck, the prison bars had drained him.

Reaching an intersection on the corridors, he saw the stairs leading to the door to the outside on his right, plunging his body in that direction, running as fast as he could. Freedom was at the other side of the door, he would fly to the gate and cross into the real world.

When he pushed the door open with his shoulder, time stopped. Outside, it was snowing and the eyes he thought he would never see again two hours ago were now staring intently at him, as Kuchiki Rukia, suspended in the air by pure white wings, clad with a white hakama and a strange tight version of a haori and holding an equally white scepter with a shining moon on top, was in front of him.

Maybe she found out humans have supreme powers in the fallen angels' dimension. Maybe she found out how to set the Soul Aegis to return. Or maybe she didn't, and her brother was the one to tell her all those things. But one thing was for sure, she returned for revenge, but he didn't mind. If it was by her hands, he didn't mind, he deserved the execution.

Ichigo closed his eyes and spread his arms to the sides, willingly offering his body to her justice.


	15. The Empress

**The Tarot Master**

**Chapter Fourteen – Tarot Card 3 The Empress**

**Characteristics: **Rational, the woman in action. The humanity.

"_Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away._

_For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;_

_The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."_

_Song of Solomon_ (2:10)

***

"_MOVE, YOU FOOL!"_ She urged him, abruptly pushing him out of the way and pointing the scepter towards the Guardians who were chasing him close behind. A flood of ice swept through the hall, freezing everyone inside.

"Rukia?..." He was lying on the snow, staring at her with wonder and surprise.

"Come!" She grabbed his hand and took off in flight, making him spread his wings to accompany her.

Outside the gate, an also winged Byakuya was standing inside a strange floating gondola, seemingly made of pink petals continuously rustling in between them. Rukia landed on the snow, close to her brother's boat.

"Get in, kozo, unless you want to be turned to ice." Byakuya ordered him. Ichigo obeyed, but once he saw several Nephilim flying from the household to attack them, he tried to get out of the boat to help Rukia, but Byakuya's strong hand on his shoulder sat him back down. "Just watch."

Rukia stabbed her scepter on the ground with all her might and peaks of ice started rising from the earth, engulfing the ancient construction and everyone who was trying to reach them. She went up to the boat and her brother motioned his oar shaped scepter to bring the gondola into the Severing World. Once they were completely inside the intermediate dimension, Rukia lost her wings and her apparel became casual, but her brother still had his Nephilim features. Ichigo was swinging his confused stare in between the brother and the sister, until Rukia started talking, sitting next to him and facing down.

"Nii-sama is a Nephilim like you. He told me all about it when I arrived." Ichigo was listening to her intently. "He's my adoptive brother, but my real sister was a Nephilim too, she and Nii-sama were lovers behind their Covenant's back."

"How couldn't I see he was a Nephilim before?"

"That I don't know." And she raised her head to her brother, who was standing with his back turned to them, moving the oar in front. "Nii-sama?"

He replied without facing them. "Years away from a Covenant erode the traces which make us recognizable to Nephilim eyes, while using a human form."

Rukia continued. "Apparently female Nephilim are rare and tend to have a frail health. My sister was a Watcher and didn't have a Soul Aegis. She only saw the real world because Nii-sama's power allows him to carry individuals with him securely in this gondola, and they did little escapades when they could, away from the Covenant's eyes." She held her hands over her lap. "Apparently, our mother was unusually fertile towards divine seed, but somehow I was born human instead of Nephilim. When my sister learned of my birth and particular nature, she was already very sick… Her last wish was for Nii-sama to take me away from the Covenant, so that I wouldn't share our mother's fate… And so he did, he fled the Covenant with me and took care of me ever since."

Ichigo asked her about the only thing that still didn't make sense inside his head. "Why did you save me?"

She raised her eyebrows, still gazing low at her hands. "You sacrificed yourself to get me out of there. I couldn't let it be, if within my power to do something about it."

"But I was the one to make you end up in the Covenant in the first place."

"I know…" She paused, trying to find the words. "Before you sent me away… you said… you wished you could start over… find out what it would be like… without tricks…" Ichigo looked at her intently, his face animated and his heart warmed. "I guess… I won't mind finding that out too." She finally gathered the nerve to face him, inspecting his features.

"Oh Rukia!" Drunk in happiness, he circled his arms around her to kiss her passionately, but her hand against his cheek made him face the opposite way with the violence of the impact, before their lips even brushed.

"I SAID _START OVER_, DON'T GET AHEAD OF YOURSELF!"

Still facing the opposite way, Ichigo brought a palm to massage his bruised cheek, noticing Byakuya was amused with his troubles, smirking over his shoulder.

"Tsk…" He shook his head condescendingly and resumed his rowing through the Severing World.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at him in between the fingers which still massaged his face and turned his head to look at the violent petite girl sitting by his side, staring at him with those defiant violet orbs which feared nothing. And he smiled, regarding her in between the fingers that still tried to ease his bruised side, remembering this was exactly what made him so crazy about her from the moment they met. Yes. This was a start. This was a _damn good_ start.


End file.
